I'm not gonna lie, life without Facebook is definitely better. Since getting bounced off of it by what I assume is AI enforcement, and a false positive to something, I've mostly confirmed what I already knew: The algorithm is for attention, not for tracking friends. There's a great video by the CEO of Patreon, of all people, spelling it out for you, if you don't already get it (embedded below).
It's weird how the doomscrolling can radicalize people, not in the terrorist sense, but in the "I'm a victim and it's 'their' fault" way. My experience has been that being a hetero white male has resulted in little to no systemic discrimination or disadvantage for me. No amount of DEI efforts, anti-racism or other corrective action has changed that. But I suppose if people are telling you anything enough, you might believe it. It's unfortunate that critical thinking hasn't headed this off. But while older generations subscribe to the, "If you see it on TV (or online), you can trust it," and the younger people don't remember three network newsmen whose credibility was everything. In many ways, a lot of people have never had to think critically.
Again, I was using FB less and less. It was basically a scrapbooking mechanism. I saw so little of friends, because Facebook's intent is not to keep you connected with friends. That ended years ago. The only issue, maybe, is that there are a few folks I was hanging on to in terms of contact, but I don't know if that was ever that important. Maybe it was just hanging on to feeling like I know people. I know for sure that not seeing endless things intended to enrage is better for me.
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